Showing papers on "Empowerment published in 1998"

Explaining How Survivors Respond to Downsizing: The Roles of Trust, Empowerment, Justice, and Work Redesign

Abstract: In this article we develop a stress-based framework of survivors' responses to downsizing. First, we synthesize prior research findings into a typology of survivor responses delineated by two underlying dimensions: constructive/destructive and active/passive. Drawing on Lazarus's theory of stress, we then posit that how survivors appraise the downsizing will shape their responses to it. We argue that trust and justice influence primary appraisal and facilitate more constructive responses because they reduce the extent to which organizational downsizing is evaluated as a threat. Likewise, we argue that empowerment and work redesign influence secondary appraisal and facilitate more active responses because they enhance survivors' assessments of their capacity to cope with the threat. Finally, we discuss contributions of the framework and implications for research and practice.

Empowerment: the emperor's new clothes.

Abstract: Everyone talks about empowerment, but it's not working. CEOs subtly undermine empowerment. Employees are often unprepared or unwilling to assume the new responsibilities it entails. Even change professionals stifle it. When empowerment is used as the ultimate criteria of success in organizations, it covers up many of the deeper problems that they must overcome. To understand this apparent contradiction, the author explores two kinds of commitment: external and internal. External commitment--or contractual compliance--is what employees display when they have little control over their destinies and are accustomed to working under the command-and-control model. Internal commitment occurs when employees are committed to a particular project, person, or program for their own individual reasons or motivations. Internal commitment is very closely allied with empowerment. The problem with change programs designed to encourage empowerment is that they actually end up creating more external than internal commitment. One reason is that these programs are rife with inner contradictions and send out mixed messages like "do your own thing--the way we tell you." The result is that employees feel little responsibility for the change program, and people throughout the organization feel less empowered. What can be done? Companies would do well to recognize potential inconsistencies in their change programs; to understand that empowerment has its limits; to establish working conditions that encourage employees' internal commitment; and to realize that morale and even empowerment are penultimate criteria in organizations. The ultimate goal is performance.

Empowerment: theory and practice

Abstract: In recent years, the term empowerment has become part of everyday management language. It has also been associated with popular management movements of the times such as human resource management (HRM) and total quality management (TQM). Empowerment is regarded as providing a solution to the age‐old problem of Taylorised and bureaucratic workplaces where creativity is stifled and workers become alienated, showing discontent through individual or collective means. However, there are significant problems with much of the prescriptive literature on empowerment, in that there is little detailed discussion of the problems employers may experience implementing empowerment or the conditions which are necessary for such an approach to be successful. It is assumed employees will simply welcome the new way of working. Moreover, it is also assumed that empowerment is a universal solution appropriate to all organisations in all circumstances. Empowerment itself is not seen in a contingent way. Such literature has also been criticised as superficial and furthermore as trivialising the conflict that exists within organisations.

The Power Behind Empowerment: Implications for Research and Practice

Abstract: The 1990s have been called the “empowerment era,” yet growing evidence suggests that empowerment programs often fail to meet the expectations of both managers and employees. To provide a better understanding as to why empowerment programs often fail and to suggest how such failures may be averted, we examine the power behind empowerment. Ironically, although power and empowerment are inextricably linked, much of the work on empowerment in the business literature has been devoid of any discussion of power. We present a four-dimensional model which shows the multifaceted way in which power works. In it, we observe the similarities and differences in the ways that different theorists have approached the study of power, notably those ascribing to mainstream, critical, and Foucauldian perspectives. We then use this power model as a lens with which to examine empowerment practices in business. This analysis suggests a number of possible reasons for the failure of business empowerment programs and provides direc...

Revisiting Community Participation

Abstract: This article which examines the notion of community participation and identifies its most pressing challenges opens by noting that the concept of community participation was a foundation of the World Health Organizations strategy to achieve health for all by the year 2000. Next the article reviews the reputed benefits of community participation and the most significant problems with conceptualization and evaluation. Finally examples are given of obstacles to community participation that arise from failure to ensure that the predisposing conditions are met; the diverse nature of communities themselves; the nature of participation; and the relationship of community participation to empowerment and health promotion. It is concluded that community participation must be internalized by a community in order to be effective and sustainable. Continued study of community participation will be necessary because new problems will continue to arise and communities are mutable. The potential of this important strategy for achieving "health for all" will be maximized by continued experimentation and increased sharing of experiments.

South African Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice

Abstract: Part One: Setting The Hrm Agenda: Conceptual And Contextual Perspective Part Two: Preparatory Hrm Work: Strategising, Designing And Planning Part Three: Sourcing Worktalent Part Four: The People Empowerment Challenge Part Five: The Reward And Care Challenge Part Six: Labour And Employee Relations Challenges Part Seven: Additional Challenges, Issues And Perspectives Index.

Beyond bureaucracy? Work organization in call centres

Abstract: Call centres are a rapidly growing, IT-based channel for service and sales delivery, particularly in the financial services and telecom industries. Although little research has been undertaken on the human resource aspects of call centres, two contrasting images are emerging. The first emphasizes the bureaucratic, constraining nature of these work settings, while the second image points towards worker empowerment characteristic of knowledge-intensive settings. Which of these two images more faithfully portrays the nature of work organization in call centres is the subject of our paper. Drawing on qualitative research undertaken in six call centres and a survey of front-line workers, we show that elements of both models coexist and that a hybrid model predominates. The theoretical basis for this contention, and its institutionalization as mass customized bureaucracy, lies in management's on-going attempts to reconcile two conflicting principles: standardization of processes and customization of products. The paper also explores, as key consequences of mass customized bureaucracy, front-line workers' satisfaction with various facets of their job and their overall job satisfaction, in addition to discretionary work effort. Only in relation to job security and co-worker relations could front-line workers be considered satisfied. Overall, these employees were ambivalent in their responses. They were however more likely to give more discretionary work effort than indicated by their extent of satisfaction. We conclude that, although the existing pattern of work organization may be superior to more bureaucratic forms, it is by no means ideal from the standpoint of either front-line workers or management.

Educational research for social justice : getting off the fence

Abstract: Part 1 Introduction and context: taking sides, getting change research for social justice? - some examples. Part 2 Theoretical frameworks for practical purposes: truths and methods facts and values - power/knowledge living with uncertainty in educational research educational research for social justice - a framework. Part 3 Practical possibilities: getting started - the research process getting justice - empowerment and voice better knowledge educational research at large.

Empowerment, Marginalization, and "Community-integrated" GIS

Abstract: The "GIS and Society" literature has raised a number of critical issues concerning the political economy and epistemology of geographical information systems (GIS) and the politics and power relations associated with their use. Recently, attention has focused on the potential for GIS to help empower communities. This paper reviews the GIS and Society debate. Case studies of public participation GIS are reviewed. The GIS-empowerment-marginalization nexus is addressed through the concept of community-integrated GIS. It is argued that GIS is a contradictory technology that simultaneously marginalizes and empowers people and communities. As a result, the societal impacts of GIS are contingent upon particular configurations of place-based historical, socio-economic, political, and technological conditions.

Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age

Abstract: Introduction No Place Like Home The Perils of Mobility The Triumphs of Economists An Emerging Countermovement A Way Forward 1 Place Matters Bad People and Bad Civics The Science of Efficiency Free Trade vs Community A New Economics of Place 2 Needs-Driven Industries Import Replacement Food Industries Energy Industries Natural-Resources Industries Materials Industries Beyond Necessities 3 Community Corporations A Taxonomy of American Business Engines of Self-Reliance New Models Empowerment Through Ownership 4 Financing the Future Bankers vs Communities Community-Development Financial Institutions Unconventional Loans Locally Owned Equity Pension Reinvestment The Role of Public Policy 5 Pro-Community Local Governance The Virtues of Localism Local Reinvestment Local Purchasing Selective Privatization Local Hiring Local Taxes A Question of Power 6 Bringing Home Power, Not Bacon Real Home Rule A New Approach to Trade Rethinking Corporations Neighborhood Banking Community Lobbying 7 Making History Ten Steps Toward Community Self-Reliance The New Global Village The Lilliputian Strategy Appendix

Empowerment theory for rehabilitation research: Conceptual and methodological issues.

Abstract: The rapid paradigmatic shift in rehabilitation to more constituent-driven treatment, program planning, and research agendas has led to the proposal to include empowerment as a critical variable in outcome research (J. D. Banja, 1990; National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Resear

‘Women Doing Friendship’: an analysis of women's leisure as a site of identity construction, empowerment and resistance

Abstract: This paper examines the importance of leisure contexts as a crucial site of gendered identity construction. Revisiting the debate about the meaning of leisure for women, it is argued that leisure contexts, particularly those with other women, are important spaces for women to review their lives; assessing the balance of satisfactions and activities through contradictory discourses which involve both the ‘mirroring’ of similarities, and resistance to traditional feminine identities. ‘Women's talk’ as friendship is examined, both as a prime site of leisure and as a key mechanism through which feminine subjectivities are secured. Finally, it is suggested that in particular circumstances, women use humour to subvert sexist imagery. Shared humour between women in leisure contexts, can be a source of empowerment and resistance to gender stereotypes, the study of which, assists in illuminating the process of gender identity construction.

Whose voice? Participatory research and policy change

Abstract: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABBREVIATIOANNSD ADDRESSES Foreword ROBERT CHAMBERS 1 General Introduction PART 1: Thematic and sectoral studies 2 Introduction 3 Using PRA for Agricultural Policy Analysis in Nepal: the Tarai Research Network Foodgrain Study GERARD GILL The Tarai Research Network (TRN) Why use PRA methods? Summary results Farmers' views on productivity trends Conclusions 4 Coping with Cost Recovery in Zambia: a sectoral policy study DAVID BOOTH Background The experience Some lessons 5 Designing the Future Together: PRA and education policy in The Gambia EILEEN KANE, LAWRENCE BRUCE and MARY OREILLY DE BRUN The problem Challenges Background and sequence of events Findings, learnings, insights What triggered the changes in education policy? Designing the future together 6 Can Policy-focused Research be Participatory? Research on violence and poverty in Jamaica using PRA methods CAROLINE MOSER and JEREMY HOLLAND Context and definitions Who defines the objectives of the study? Is the product more important than the process? Who provides the framework for analysis? What dissemination procedures best ensure that all voices are heard? Conclusion 7 Village Voices Challenging Wetland-management Policies: PRA experiences from Pakistan and India BIKSHAM GUJJA, MICHEL PIMBERT and MEERA SHAH The context New insights experienced by outsiders Policy implications Changes in policy and action Costs and benefits Learning from the process 8 The Use of RRA to Inform Policy: tenure issues in Madagascar and Guinea KAREN SCHOONMAKER FREUDENBERGER Background How RRA was used A key difference: composition of the research teams Reasons to use RRA to inform policy discussions Reasons to include policymakers as members of the RRA research team Problems that arise in using RRA to inform policy dialogues 9 Scottish Forestry Policy 'U-turn': was PRA in Laggan behind it? ANDY INGLIS and SUSAN GUY Overview PRA in Laggan PRA and policy change: a return to Laggan Conclusion: what did we learn? 10 IDS Workshop: reflections on thematic and sectoral studies What influence have thematic and sectoral studies had? How can the thematic approach be improved? PART 2: Participatory poverty assessments 11 Introduction 12 'The One Who Rides The Donkey Does Not Know The Ground Is Hot': CEDEP's involvement in the Ghana PPA TONY DOGBE Rich man, poor man The PPA studies in Ghana South-South skills share and networking Handing over the stick The RRA-PRA spectrum Face-to-face interaction Presenting the findings of PRA-style studies Policy influence Conclusion 13 The Impact of PRA Approaches and Methods on Policy and Practice: the Zambia PPA JOHN MILIMO, ANDREW NORTON and DANIEL OWEN Rationale and objectives The role of the Participatory Assessment Group (PAG) Methodology Policy impact Issues of training and methodology Emerging strengths of the Zambia PPA process Emerging lessons from the Zambia PPA process Conclusion 14 Whose PPA is this? Lessons learned from the Mozambique PPA DANIEL OWEN Introduction Objectives and planning Trade-offs in the PPA process: ownership vs. quality Trade-offs in policy outcomes: rapid information feedback vs. policy-level acceptability 'Whose PPA is this?' 15 Kicking Down Doors and Lighting Fires: the South African PPA HEIDI A'ITWOOD and JULIAN MAY A means to an end Designing the South Africa PPA process From research results to policy recommendations Strengths and weaknesses 16 PPAs: a review of the World Bank's experience CAROLINE ROBB Introduction Community-level issues Country-level issues World Bank issues PPAs and country policy PPAs and World Bank policy Objectives 17 Some Reflections on the PPA Process and Lessons Learned ANDREW NORTON What influence have PPAs had? How can the PPA process be improved? PART 3: Whose voice? Reflections fkom the IDS workshop 18 Introduction 19 How Are Local Voices Heard by Policymakers? IDS WORKSHOP Bridging discourses: participatory intermediary structures and the role of the researcher Merging discourses: bringing policymakers and local people together 20 Getting Policymakers to Move the Bricks Around: advocacy and participatory-irrigation management in India JAMES BLACKBURN Inspiration from the Philippines Working groups Process Documentation Research (PDR) A call for NGOs to learn 21 Challenges in Influencing Public Policy: an NGO perspective ANIL C. SHAH 22 Towards Community-sensitive Policy: influencing the Uganda National Health Plan BEN OSUGA Approaches and methods used Main results Key challenges 23 The Research Process: sustaining quality and maximizing impact IDS WORKSHOP Approaches and methods Training for participatory policy-focused research 24 Analysing Participatory Research for Policy Change ANDREW NORTON From extractive research to participatory development practice Preparing for the research Analysis and reporting in the field Policy analysis with participatory research findings Social analysis using PRA material Notes on poverty analysis using PLAIPRA methods Dangerous assumptions! Opening doors - new actors in policy research 25 Participation, Policy Change and Empowerment IDS WORKSHOP Whose empowerment does what? Empowerment and local-level conflict Participatory process or policy product? Promoting PRA best practice in policy-focused research Afterword ROBERT CHAMBERS Making a difference The future Annexe 1: World Bank PPA methodology Annexe 2: worldbank PPA impact analysis Annexe 3: Key findings and policy recommendations from the South African PPA Notes References and sources Index

COMMUNITY ORGANIZING OR ORGANIZING COMMUNITY? Gender and the Crafts of Empowerment

Abstract: This article looks at two strains of urban community organizing, distinguished by philosophy and often by gender, and influenced by the historical division of American society into public and private spheres. The authors compare the well-known Alinsky model, which focuses on communities organizing for power, and what they call the women-centered model, which focuses on organizing relationships to build community. These models are rooted in somewhat distinct traditions and vary along several dimensions, including conceptions of human nature and conflict, power and politics, leadership, and the organizing process. The authors conclude by examining the implications of this analysis and questions for further research and practice.

Participation, social capital and vulnerability to urban flooding in Guyana

Abstract: The tension between international agencies, national and local institutions of the Global South has received much recent attention. This paper contributes to the debate by contrasting contemporary participatory models of management for the built environment with local experience of social capacity building and vulnerability to local flooding. It draws on field data collected in 1995–96 and is set within the contexts of recent structural adjustment and democratisation in Guyana. Identified vulnerabilities to flood hazard reveal that social and political assets play key roles in shaping access to local, national and international resources for environmental management. Despite recent structural reforms, and a rhetoric of participatory democracy, it is found that marginalized groups with limited social resources (women, children, the aged, the economically poor, petty-agriculturalists and squatters) continue to be excluded from local participatory decision-making in environmental management, and that the top-down construction of community has enabled local and national political elites to capture institutional structures designed to facilitate local empowerment and sustainable environmental management in coastal Guyana. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

NGO-promoted microcredit programs and women's empowerment in rural Bangladesh: quantitative and qualitative evidence.

Abstract: Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in rural Bangladesh are reaching out to poor women with collateral-free credit programs aimed at both alleviating poverty and increasing womens status. The present study investigated the hypothesis that participation in credit-related activities by NGO credit members leads to greater empowerment of credit members compared to nonmembers. The sample was comprised of 1164 loanees and 1200 nonloanees from the five NGO areas in Bangladesh and of 1200 nonloanees from non-program areas of rural Bangladesh with no significant NGO presence. NGO credit members had significantly higher scores on all three indices of female empowerment: inter-spouse consultation autonomy and authority. Moreover nonmembers within NGO program areas had higher autonomy and authority scores than nonmembers within the comparison areas. Even after background variables were controlled in the multivariate analysis NGO credit membership and residence in an NGO program area remained significantly and positively associated with both the autonomy and authority indices. Other variables that exerted a significant positive effect on womens empowerment were concrete or corrugated buildings area of residence outside the southern or eastern regions nonagricultural occupation respondents education and age. In focus group discussions NGO credit loanees reported that the program made them more confident assertive intelligent self-reliant and aware of their rights. NGO credit programs that target poor women are likely to produce substantial improvements in womens social and economic status without the long delays associated with education or employment opportunities in the formal sector.

Empowerment in Social Work Practice. A Sourcebook.

Abstract: Part 1 An introduction to empowerment practice: a model for empowerment practice. Part 2 Empowerment in practice - populations: empowerment of women empowering poor communities of colour - a self-help model empowerment practice with lesbians and gays empowering people with disabilities. Part 3 Empowerment in practice - focusing on fields: empowerment in mental-health programmes - listening to the voices empowerment practice with homeless people or families empowerment of youth empowering families. Part 4 Special issues in empowerment practice: social-service delivery and empowerment - the administrator's role research as an empowerment strategy evaluation of empowerment practice creating opportunities for empowerment-oriented programmes.

A Word of the Times, but What Does it Mean? Empowerment in the Discourse and Practice of Development

Abstract: Empowerment has become rather a buzz word for the 1990s. As well as now being used by Western politicians, it was a word frequently heard at the UN Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 and at the World Population Conference in Cairo in 1994. Current use of the word remains ill-defined, however, in the development context: its users tend to assume that the appropriate meaning will be understood without being explained. It is used by people representing a wide range of political and philosophical perspectives, from the World Bank to feminists. In a book considering empowerment, then, it is crucial to start by paying attention to the meaning(s) of empowerment as an idea. This chapter explores the way that the term has come to be used in the development discourse,2 and proposes a ‘meaning’ for the term that will help in the consideration of the chapters that follow, as well as assisting in the development of appropriate policy and practice aimed at women’s empowerment.

Good intentions overruled : a critique of empowerment in the routine organization of mental health services

Abstract: Good Intentions OverRuled is about empowerment; so it is also about power. This book shows how power is exerted in the routine organizational processes that determine what can be done in everyday life, since modern societies are controlled by regulations, policies, professional practice, legislation, budgets, and other forms of organization. Against the backdrop of an ideal vision of empowerment, this critique highlights both the Good Intentions of professionals and the organizational processes through which empowerment is OverRuled. Professionals who promote empowerment for those with little power, such as people with long-standing mental health problems, experience tension, a disjuncture between enabling participation in empowerment and engaging in caregiving processes that perpetuate dependence. Attempts to enable participation are undermined by processes of objectification, individualized accountability, hierarchical decision making, simulation-based education, risk management, and exclusion, which protect but also control people. The significance of this critique extends beyond mental health services because similar processes are used in the routine organization of power in education, employment insurance, transportation, and other sectors of society. Good Intentions OverRuled sparks debate about empowerment by using a method called institutional ethnography, developed by the Canadian sociologist Dorothy Smith. Mental health day programs are explored from the perspective of seven occupational therapists in Atlantic Canada. Described in this ethnography are the local, provincial, federal, and international processes used to organize power in Canada's mental health services. The aim is to inspire professional, lay, academic, and other persons (including those who use mental health services) to change the organization of power so that we promote rather than overrule empowerment.

The Disappearance of Technology: Toward an Ecological Model of Literacy

Abstract: Diverse voices have outlined the advantages or disadvantages of technology as they have emerged within classrooms, businesses, communities, and families. Enthusiasts vaunt technological changes, which they contend can effect a more equitable distribution of power. They invoke issues such as empowerment, equality, access, speed, efficiency, liberation, and the development of a global community in support of a pro-technology agenda. As an example, Rheingold's (1993) account of the growth of electronic communication in the Bay Area is framed in terms such as grassroots groupminds and new electronic villages, terms that call forth the potential of new technologies to support a renewal of community. Going further, some proponents promote a form of technological determinism in which new tools or media alone are seen as bringing about a better world.

Stepping Forward: Children and Young People's Participation In the Development Process

Abstract: Stepping Forward presents the key issues and challenges involved in facilitating children and young people's participation. The contributors to this book come from a range of backgrounds including NGOs in development, children's agencies, academic institutions and governments, bringing a multi-disciplinary approach to children's participation. The main issues discussed and analysed include: the ethical dilemmas that face professionals in addressing children's participation; the process and methods used in participatory research and planning with children; the inter-relationship between culture and children's participation; considerations for institutions, and the key qualities of a participation programme for children and young people's participation. Essential reading for professionals, agencies and institutions working with and for children, and in development, as well as professionals involved in participatory approaches. This title is part of the Participation in Development series.

The Learning Organization: Learning and Empowerment for Whom?:

Abstract: In this article we develop a framework to assess organizational learning and the depth, breadth and spread of members' involvement. The framework incorporates the Morgan (1986) metaphors and the `learning company' characteristics of Pedler et al. (1991), along with the notions of single-, double-, and triple-loop learning. We draw up competing hypotheses setting Coopey's (1995a, 1995b) constitutionalist argument that a `learning organization' will enhance only the power of the `ruling court' unless democratic arrangements are explicitly laid down, against ideas of developmental leadership. Using case studies of two blue-chip companies-both cited as learning organizations, one claiming to have a democratically-oriented constitution-we illustrate how the framework may be used to assemble data for use in testing hypotheses in more empirically-grounded studies of empowerment in learning organizations. Our study compared the perspectives of top management, reflected in popular and professional publications, wi...

Beyond the Market and State : Social enterprises and civil democracy in a welfare society

Abstract: This text explores the role of social economy and civil democracy in transforming welfare state in Sweden, while retaining public financing for social services. This can be achieved through cooperative self-management and greater citizen participation as co-producers. Separating the financing from the provision of universal social services and contracting out their provision to social enterprises can promote several important social values, such as: enrichment of work life, improvement of work environment and increased co-determination for the worker; the empowerment of citizens as co-producers of the services they demand; and finally the transformation of the welfare state into a welfare society. The text undertakes an extensive conceptual discussion necessary for understanding the potentials of social enterprises in meeting the challenges facing the welfare state at the turn of the century. This includes the concepts of the third sector, civil society and civil democracy, and then of both the economic and political aspects of civil democracy. It extends the study of psychosocial work environment with the dimension of enduring client interaction. It summarizes the Work Environment and Cooperative Social Services Project, financed by the Swedish coucil for Work Environment Research between 1992-1996. This includes Organizational Study, Staff Study and Parent Study, comparisons of different cooperative services and municipal day care.

A customer‐oriented framework for empowering service employees

Abstract: While a great deal has been written on the subject of empowerment of employees in the manufacturing industries, its application in the services area is relatively under‐developed. In fact, the special nature of services, and in particular the simultaneity of production and consumption is one of the major reasons for arguing that contact employees should be allowed a degree of discretion when dealing with customers. However, some authors have argued that service employees should have little or no discretion. This suggests that the approach to participation is a contingent one. That is, empowerment is not suitable for all occasions or all types of employees. Outlines a contingency framework for the empowerment of contact service employees. Argues that the appropriate levels and the types of empowerment given to employees depends on a combination of the complexity or variability of customer needs, and the degree of task complexity or variability involved in delivering the customer needs. It is also argued that, in any empowerment framework it is essential that the degree and the type of empowerment is also included.